Pearson
Adult Learning Centre: Weekly Feature

Plagiary is "to represent as
one's own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any
academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form
of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism." (How
Not to Plagiarize from the University of Toronto)

Plagiary
is a serious form of what is termed "intellectual" theft. Representing
another person's ideas as your own, you have, in effect, stolen
something of value. If you would not steal my watch (and I hope you
wouldn't!) then why would you steal my idea?

How can a student
avoid plagiary? Well, start by imagining its consequences. If a student
successfully hides his or her plagiary, that student will be rewarded,
unfairly.

To make my point in the classroom, I often query my
students on whether they would like to have surgery from a doctor who
had cheated on the final exams. Nobody ever does!

Plagiary is
not a victimless crime. These days, honest students see others getting
away with stealing ideas and wonder if it is worth following the rules.
But as Piggy so eloquently puts it in Lord of the Flies, "the rules are
all we've got."

At the PALC, we treat plagiary very seriously.
An automatic "0" will result from any cheating. To be sure, plagiary is
the exception at the PALC, but it is certainly worth knowing about and
avoiding for any serious student, especially those who wish to attend a
college or university.